In order to produce a stainless steel strip of improved gloss, it has been common practice to use a rolling mill lubricant(oil) of low viscosity, or work rolls having a small diameter to decrease the amount of the oil caught in the bite between the rolls and thereby enhance the transfer of the controlled roughness of the roll surfaces to the strip surfaces.
JP-A-7-155809 discloses a process employing rolls having a controlled surface roughness to produce a high gloss. It employs smooth rolls having a centerline average surface roughness, Ra, of 0.01 to 0.06 micron for at least the last two passes, and may further include temper rolling which is effected by employing similar smooth rolls without lubrication to achieve a reduction in thickness of 0.3 to 3.0%.
There is also known a process which employs mirror-finished work rolls having a Young's modulus of 31,000 to 54,000 kgf/mm.sup.2 for the last pass in the manufacture of a metal foil having a high degree of surface brightness, as described in JP-A-1-197004.
The known processes have, however, been unable to achieve the desired gloss in any operation employing a high rolling speed, particularly for the last pass, and have, therefore, been able to achieve only a low efficiency in the production of stainless steel strips.
Under these circumstances, it is an object of this invention to provide a process which can manufacture a cold rolled stainless steel strip of high gloss with a high efficiency.